WASHINGTON – Households impacted by recent wildfires in Northern California could be eligible for help buying food through USDA’s Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced this week.

Those who may not normally be eligible for nutrition assistance under regular SNAP rules may qualify for D-SNAP if their income is under the disaster limits and they have qualifying disaster-related expenses. “D-SNAP is an important next step in helping Northern Californians recover from terrible losses,” said USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, in a press release. “We will continue our close partnership with the California Department of Social Services to ensure wildfire victims have the food they need.”

Benefits will be made available to eligible people who either lived or worked in Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Sonoma and Yuba Counties at the time the wildfires began on October 8, 2017; have been affected by the disaster; and meet certain D-SNAP eligibility criteria. Approved households will receive one month of benefits, equivalent to the maximum amount of benefits normally issued to a SNAP household of their size to meet their food needs as they return to their communities to recover and rebuild. Current SNAP participants in the affected areas will also receive additional benefits as appropriate to match the D-SNAP amounts.